National Agreement – LCV Driver Behaviour Technology 

Further to LTB 555/15 Branches and the proof of concept trial in 6 Delivery Offices Derby, Chesterfield, Leeds, Worksop, Kidderminster and Knutsford across the East, North and West areas we have now concluded our post trial discussions with Royal Mail and reached agreement on the above.

 

The National Agreement is designed to improve driver safety and a reduce road traffic accidents. The main monitoring element of the system is to achieve a 10% MPG improvement, and as such the technology will be fitted to approximately 13,000 vehicles in approximately 1300 locations across the UK.

We have agreed and included in the National Agreement that all individuals have a right to privacy at work and jointly accepted that there is an obligation on both parties to sustain confidence and trust in relation to all employees, and that we should act in a way to engender that type of relationship. Accordingly the driver performance data will remain confidential to the individual and will not be displayed on notice boards or in league tables, nor will it form part of performance management. It is also agreed that this technology is not being deployed for use as a disciplinary tool or a source of information to be used in conduct cases.

The CWU will be fully involved in the deployment at all levels which we have agreed is essential if the full benefits are to be realised. This will include all aspects of the initiative including implementation, monitoring, assessment and profile adjustment where agreed necessary. It will also include training opportunities for a number of nominated CWU representatives, providing them with a system overview. Full training will be supplied to all employees who will be required to use the new technology, and the training package will be agreed in full with the CWU before the system is switched on. The proposed go live date is 5th October 2015.                      

The agreement will be the subject of joint review 6 months after deployment and periodically thereafter. The installation of the technology/devices is still expected to be finished during November 2015. Branches will be updated of further developments.

                                                                                               

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 300

Email address: mstewart@cwu.org                              

 

Yours sincerely
Bob Gibson

CWU Assistant Secretary

ADR Briefings Documentation – July 2015 – Future Delivery Model Debate 

CWU Area Delivery Representatives will recall the ADR briefings that took place during July 2015 and the presentations and discussions that took place. Due to the voluminous nature of the presentations and documentation it was not possible to circulate these via an LTB. Consequently we have now arranged for the documentation to be made available via the link below.

 

http://www.cwu.org/futureofdelivery.html

 

The documents available include the following in numerical order.

 

1. Compact Large Letter & Letter Sorter Presentation.

This is a presentation to the CWU regarding the above mentioned machine trial that took place earlier in the year and included the impact on Sidmouth Delivery Office.

 

2. CUPW Canada Post Presentation – Work Life Balance.

This is a comprehensive study/report commissioned by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to look at the impact of Transformation and its affect on work life balance and its members.

 

3. Norway Post Presentation – New Delivery Structure – Royal Mail Visit.

This is a presentation made by the Norwegian Postal Operator to the CWU and Royal Mail on the visit to Norway earlier this year illustrating how they implemented a new Delivery Structure.

 

4. OMP Presentation to Parallel Ops – Norway & Sweden

This is a presentation made to the Parallel Ops Committee following the visit to Norway and Sweden in June 2015.This committee is made up of senior managers and CWU officers

 

5. Review Postal Operator efficiency – WIK Report

This is a report on Postal Operator Efficiency commissioned by OFCOM.

 

6. Solynews Mail Merging Document

This is a document produced by Solystic promoting the use of mail merging technology.

 

7. Solystic XMS Sorting Machine

This is a document produced by Solystic promoting the mail merging machine (Letters & Flats) that they have produced and is the technology trialled in document 1 above.

 

8. CWU Slides – Norway Benchmarking Trip June 2015-09-24

These are slides produced by the CWU following the visit to Norway showing the equipment introduced and used to support the new delivery structure.
COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION 

URGENT INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. 15LTB114

This is the LTB released in February detailing the OMP trial and the agreed terms of reference being used for the trial.

 

10. CWU H&S Notes – Norway and Sweden Visit

These are simply notes/bullet points covering what we saw in Norway & Sweden mainly from a H&S perspective.

 

11. Optimised Mail Preparation – Postal Comparators – Dec 2014

This is a report we requested from the Research department to support our involvement in the OMP trial and to provide some comparisons with other Postal Operators. Some of this information is included in the WIK report.

 

12. CWU Operational Notes – Norway and Sweden June 2015

These are simply notes/bullet points covering what we saw in Norway & Sweden from an operational perspective.

 

These documents are being provided to enable debate and discussion within Branches, within CWU committees, between CWU representatives and between them and our members. They are not at this stage providing any direction or influence. They are there to provide information on what is happening in the Postal Industry and for consideration to be given to what we want our future to look like bearing in mind what is going on around us that will also influence the future of all Postal Operators.

 

Further ADR briefings are being held in October commencing on the 21st in Edinburgh and we would like discussions/consultations to have taken place before these events take place to feed back the views of our representatives and members so that we can broaden the debate and hopefully in the new year broaden the number of participants.

 

Two useful links for researching Postal Technology and Ofcom activity are

 

http://www.postaltechnologyinternational.com/news.php?NewsID=70211

 

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/post/

 

Any further documents produced by us or that become available from others that will add to the debate/discussion will also be circulated.

 

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 230.03

Email address:

” mstewart@cwu.org

Yours sincerely​
Bob Gibson

CWU Assistant Secretary – Outdoor

 

Processing Report 

 

Strategic Involvement (SI) Meeting

The CWU have raised concerns over the amount of time it is taking for the business to conclude the current VR exercises and have stressed that we will not enter into any further negotiations on VR’s until the current exercises have been concluded.

We have also raised concerns on the length of time it is taking to complete the 25 Saturday only Casual Conversions the CWU have agreed under the Job Security Agreement. Management will make enquiries to HR and report back at next weeks meeting.

Para: Ongoing.

 

Processing Duty Structure

The CWU will commence negotiations with Management over the Processing duty structure now that the Production Control Manager is back from annual leave. The Part time staff who have recently been successful in increasing their contractual hours on a temporary basis to either full time or 24 hours will continue throughout the Christmas and New Year period with a review planned at the end of January.

Para: Ongoing

 

Christmas 2015

We had our first meeting on the Christmas 2015 operation last week where it was confirmed there will be an Outhouse for Peterborough. It is the old United Technologies building on Bakewell Road Orton Southgate. We are in the process of drawing up the 2015 Processing Christmas Agreement. In preparation for this notices have gone on display advertising the possibility of part time staff to go full time over the Christmas pressure period and a notice asking if any members of staff would be interested in processing the International mail at the Outhouse this year (closing date for applications Wed 7thOctober)

Management are adopting the same practice as last year for the Christmas Pre-scheduled overtime volunteer sheets. Instead of using the old system of books on display for staff to fill in, once again each member of staff in Processing, Distribution, Revenue Protection and the Print Site will receive their own individual sheet to fill in and return to the book room. The forms will be sent out next week (Processing Staff will receive their forms in the same envelope as the Annual Leave Pick Forms) Staff in Deliveries and Administration will have to go to the book room to get a form if they wish to volunteer for Processing pre-scheduled overtime over the Christmas pressure period. The last date for the forms to be returned to the book room will be the Friday 23rd October 2015. This will give the part time staff who are successful with their applications to go full time over the Christmas pressure period (closing date 7th October) the time to complete their forms after being notified what their temporary full time hours will be.

Management have asked for members of staff who can complete their forms before the 23rd October to give them to the book room ASAP so the book room staff can start entering the information onto the computer worksheets.

Para: Ongoing.

 

Annual Leave Agreement

The 2016/17 Processing Annual Leave Agreement has been agreed and signed off today. A copy is on display on the Union Board. Members are advised to read the agreement in preparation for their leave pick of which the letters will be going out to staff next week. Last years paragraph 2.4 has become this year’s 2.6 and there are two new paragraphs have been added to this years agreement 2.4 and 2.5, there has also been an amendment to paragraph 8.3.

The return date for Annual Leave Pick Forms will be Friday 23rd October 2015.

Management have asked for members of staff who can complete their forms before the 23rd October to give them to the book room ASAP so the book room staff can start entering the information onto the computer worksheets.

 

Parcel Sort Machine

Nothing to report.

Para: Ongoing.

 

Nationally Agreed York Mover (Tug)

An advert is on display for members of staff who are interested in being trained to operate the new Tug when it is introduced into the Mail Centre to apply in writing to the book room Manager. There will be a demonstration of the Tug’s manoeuvrability on Monday 28th September at 10.00am.

Para: Ongoing.

 

Flip Flops

A Royal Mail/CWU Nationally Agreed Joint Statement on the introduction of the Flip Flops will be released on Friday 25th September. Deployment of the equipment in the mail centre will start from Saturday 26th. Management are anticipating the use of the equipment will make a 30 hour per day saving in the DSA area.

Para: Ongoing.

 

New Conduct Code

The Divisional Reps have asked for a list of all untrained Reps on the New Conduct Code which I have sent them. We are still awaiting training dates for the Processing Reps.

Para: Ongoing.

 

Branch Elections

There is a notice on the union board advertising the Branch Election timetable for positions from March 2016 to March 2018. All positions in the branch, Officers, Area Reps, IR and H&S Shift and substitute Reps on all shifts in all functions are up for nomination.

Para: To be noted.

 

EJ Orviss

Area Processing Representative

Area.processing@cwue5.org

Date 25th September 2015

,

 RE: MTSF Review

 
Further to LTB 350/2015 discussions with Royal Mail on the MTSF review have now concluded.

 
Attached is the review agreement which has been endorsed by the Postal Executive, together with “Additional guidance on ETE cases” which is a Royal Mail policy document which has been amended in consultation with CWU but does not constitute a formal agreement.

 
Background

 
Two elements of the MTSF section of the Business Transformation Agreement of 2010 were “time limited” and subject to review. These were:

 
The suspension of a “cap” of two years pensionable pay on cost to the business of redundancy (which had the effect of enabling members of the Royal Mail Pension Plan aged over 55 to take a package including immediate payment of an enhanced pension).

 
An additional two years support and an increase in the cap on Excess Travel Expenses from £1,500 to £20,000 for those in the former Letters business whose travel costs exceeded £1,250 per year following redeployment. 

 
These terms were originally due to cease on 31st March 2013 but were extended a number of times, most recently by the “Joint Statement: Balanced approach to growth, efficiency and incentives” which deferred the review until May 2015.

 
In addition to this, during 2014 HMRC changed its policy on taxability of buy down of hours payments, to make them reckonable for tax and National Insurance (NI). As part of the Joint Statement Royal Mail agreed to pay 50% of the cost of tax and NI, or provide the option of payment of buy down lump sum into pension, again reviewable in May 2015.

 
Voluntary Redundancy Cap 

 
It has not been possible to persuade the business to further extend the suspension of the cap. With effect from 1st October this year the suspension will be lifted. This does not affect redundancy terms based on the multiplier but will limit the ability of members of the Royal Mail Pension Plan (RMPP) to receive immediate payment of enhanced pension to circumstances in which the total cost to the business does not exceed the equivalent of two year’s pensionable pay. 

 
Where the combined redundancy and pension cost would exceed the equivalent of two years pensionable pay, cash compensation of 104 weeks pensionable pay will be offered instead. 

 
If a redundancy exercise is already in progress and some employees have a last day of service before 1st October and some after, the current terms will apply throughout. 

 
Excess Travel Expenses

 
The temporary enhanced Excess Travel Expenses (ETE) for employees redeployed to a new workplace with an additional cost of journey exceeding £1,250 a year have been made permanent on the current basis and are no longer subject to review. 

 
Buy Down

 
The 50% company contribution to tax NI at the basic rate or the alternative of payment direct into pension will remain in place and will be reviewed again in March 2017. 

 
“Additional Guidance on ETE cases”

 
Arising from these discussions management guidelines on ETE have been amended in consultation with the CWU and these revised guidelines are attached for information. It should be emphasised that these guidelines do not constitute an agreement and the union has retained the right to make representations on behalf of individuals and groups of members where it can be demonstrated that application of the guidelines could unfairly disadvantage them. 

 
Any enquiries should be addressed to PTCS department, quoting reference PTC/RE/dj/020. 

Email address: djeffery@cwu.org  

 

Yours sincerely

Ray Ellis                                       

A Woman’s Place is in Her Union 

Please find below and attached two newly designed flyers/posters that Branches can use to encourage more women to engage in the CWU structures.

 

The first poster is designed to enable Branches to advertise their Women’s Officers more prominently, bringing more profile to this role, which is enshrined in the Union’s rule book. The poster also allows for details of the relevant Regional Women’s Secretary to be inserted.

 

This initiative is designed to supplement the Union’s work around proportionality and representation.

 

The second poster is attached for the benefit of those Branches and Regions that produce newsletters or other electronic material and can be inserted accordingly.

 

Both these items are available to download from the Equal Ops section of the CWU website.

 

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be referred to the Equal Opportunities Department.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Linda Roy​

National Equality Officer​

 RE: MIDLAND REGION – WOMEN’S EVENT

 

The Midlands Region are holding a women’s event on the 3rd November in Birmingham, the details of the abovementioned event are as follows:

 

 

DATE Tuesday 3rd November 2015                          

 

VENUE CWU Offices, Summer Lane, Birmingham, B19 3TH

 

AGENDA

 

Registration 09:30 – 10:00

 

Speakers:

 

Jess Phillips MP

 

Baroness May Blood

 

Dave Ward GS – Roundtable Discussion – views on proportionality what this looks like for women in the CWU

 

Workshops will also be held on the day. The aim of the day is for female Representatives/Women’s Officers to bring a female member or new activist from the workplace along to encourage involvement in the CWU

 

LUNCH – Will be provided

 

Can people please register by emailing midlandregion@cwu.org this is so they know how many they need to cater for on the day. If people require any further information they can contact Kate Hudson, Midland Regional Secretary on this email also.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

​​​ ​​

 

Dave Ward​​​​​​

General Secretary

           

 

 

Shared Parental Leave (SPL)

Please find below and attached the latest Factsheet from the Equal Opportunities Department.

This new provision came into force in April this year.  In the first instance you should check with your employer to see how your shared parental leave rights compare to the statutory minimum.

As this is a very new piece of legislation, we would be interested to know how the implementation of SPL is being managed.  If any Branches have evidence of their members experiencing any difficulties, we would be grateful if these could be notified to us accordingly.

This Factsheet is also available online at the CWU website.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be referred to the Equal Opportunities Department.

Yours sincerely,

Linda Roy                 National Equality Officer

Clink on the link below

Shared Parental Leave

Resourcing to Workload – Annual Leave/Resourcing Guidelines 

Further to LTB 559/15 dated 28th August on “Recruitment – Resourcing to Workload – Annual Leave/Resourcing Guidelines – September Review” it has been identified that the link in the Annual Planning Meeting Agenda regarding the full year annual Delivery Traffic Forecast referred to last year’s forecast. This has now been corrected and should be replaced with the up to date link below which can only be accessed via a Royal Mail computer, CWU reps should be able to access this link via the DOMs computer;

https://portal.royalmailgroup.com/sites/A522/DTFTdata/Forecast2016/Report.htm

Branches and representatives should note that when discussing your annual leave plan the above link will give you a forecast that will help you identify the weeks where traffic is historically below your model week (normally June to August) so that extra leave slots over and above the scheduled allocation can be allocated as a consequence of agreed levels of absorption during this period.

It is essential when entering discussions that CWU representatives establish and allocate the unit’s contractual entitlement first which will in turn identify the number of leave reserves required to enable reliable resourcing.
“Vacancies and leave reserve vacancies should remain under constant review to ensure adequate resource is available to meet customer and operational requirements”.
This exercise should include all staff contractual leave, Bank Holiday credits for annual leave that coincides with Bank Holidays and rest days that fall on a Bank Holiday, purchased leave, and any leave days carried over from the previous year.
For example:
If the above added up to 600 weeks to be allocated and covered and 2 weeks were closed for Christmas Pressure the number of leave reserves to cover AWD would be 12, (600 / 50) = 12. Add to this the leave reserves leave 12 @ 5 weeks = 60 weeks would mean another leave reserve (60 / 50) = 1.2.
In this example that would mean that a minimum of 13 leave slots a week for 50 weeks should be available. If you then run your annual traffic forecast and you agree to open up another 3 slots due to agreed absorption through the summer weeks then in the period June to August the number of open slots available should be 16.
 

This is just one example. Units may decide not to employ against all 13 reserves and convert some to S/A or overtime. That is your choice locally.
As a consequence of providing additional leave slots in the summer period there will be leave gaps in the ‘winter’ period which you will need to discuss and agree a plan to deal with. There will be more people available in the unit, bearing in mind traffic/workload traditionally increases during this period. This should be dealt with via weekly resourcing meetings.
In line with the guidance provided in LTB 559/15 any refusal by management not to recruit to the identified reserve staffing levels to facilitate leave entitlement and protect the USO and quality of service should be dealt with through the IR Framework.
Branches and representative should also note that within the Annual Planning Meeting Agenda guidelines it states that a work aid has been developed to assist in annual leave planning;
“This work-aid has been newly developed and will be reviewed jointly by the Royal Mail/ CWU tools group. It has been developed by Royal Mail to help DOMs and Reps jointly make the decisions on how best to fairly share out the total AL blocks for their office against a national workload profile. It is a guide only and should therefore be used accordingly”.
The review mentioned has not taken place; however, it is our intention to undertake this review ASAP. In the meantime this aide should only be used as a guide. CWU representatives should ensure that the principles outlined above regarding establishing annual leave and reserve staffing levels are utilised and applied correctly.
Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 210

Email address:

” mstewart@cwu.org

Yours sincerely​
Bob Gibson

CWU Assistant Secretary – Outdoor

RE: CWU AFFILIATIONS GENERAL CONFERENCE MOTIONS 66 AND 87 

At 2015 CWU General Conference delegates endorsed motions 66 and 87 in the name of the National Executive Council.

 

66

 

CARRIED

Conference endorses the decision of the NEC taken on 31st July 2014 to affiliate to No TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) campaign.

National Executive Council

87

 

CARRIED

Conference endorses the decision of the NEC on 29th January 2015 to affiliate to the People’s Assembly Against Austerity.

National Executive Council

 

I can confirm that in line with National Rule 6.4.6 branches are now permitted to make local affiliations to these organisations following branch endorsement.

 

If you have any enquiries on this LTB, these should be addressed to the General Secretary’s Office at gsoffice@cwu.org quoting the reference GS15.0/LTB 615/15.

 

Yours sincerely

 

​​​ ​​

 

Dave Ward​​​​​​

General Secretary

           

Manual Intervention Tool (MIT) 

Royal Mail approached the department earlier in the year expressing their desire to amalgamate the current Manual Intervention Tool (MIRA) and the Attendance Call Sampling Tool (ACST) into one tool called the Manual Intervention Tool (MIT).

 

As a consequence the CWU Measurement and Tools Group were tasked with this piece of work and dialogue has continued throughout the year to undertake this exercise, and to ensure that all the elements of the current tools are captured within the new one.

 

The new Manual Intervention Tool (MIT) has now been finalised and guidelines agreed, which are embedded below. The tool will be released and available on the Royal Mail Sharepoint from Monday 21st September 2015. The guidelines are mainly a reference document for planners to refer to as appropriate when using the tool. However, it is important that CWU representatives read the ‘Important Note’ at the start of the document and in particular paragraph 5 as this provides the context of how the tool operates within revision activity.

 

Any revisions currently ongoing will continue to use the current versions of MIRA and ACST; the new MIT tool will only apply to new structural revisions, and where the planner has been trained.

 

The tool does take a high level of ability to complete properly. Royal Mail has trained up MIT Champions who will be listed in the guidelines and provide a contact point for planners to refer to as necessary. The wider training programme for Royal Mail planners is still being determined. Overview training for CWU trainers will also be arranged in due course.

 

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 230.03

Email address: mstewart@cwu.org

 

Yours sincerely

                                    

Bob Gibson